Since 2011, she has battled Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

In January, she travelled to Russia to undergo Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT).

Melissa needed to raise $70,000 in order to have the procedure done and was able to do this through a big community effort and some generous anonymous donors.

“The whole fundraising journey was something that taught me a lot and also just made me realise how much support there is.”

Melissa said HSCT was not widely endorsed by doctors in Australia and the benefits of the procedure were only starting to be known.

“I’m glad I did it because every MS drug is not a sure thing. This isn’t a sure thing either but [with] the research on this, the likelihood of this working is much higher than anything else.”

Melissa made the trip to Russia alone and arrived on January 10.

“At the airport I thought I’d be crying. But I felt I made this decision a long time ago to do this and it’s finally happening, so go Melissa. I was very positive.”

Before she could have the procedure, Melissa had to undergo two days of testing which included ultrasounds, an MRI, and x-rays.

It was not until the doctor came to speak to her about the procedure, that Melissa started “freaking out”.

“Then I started to feel I want someone here,” she said.

“Once they decide you’re good to go, they pump steroids and all kinds of drugs into you and it makes you emotional.”

When the fear of ‘what if’ started to set in, Melissa said remembering all the people who had helped her get there, made it easier for her to push through.

“I thought these people aren’t going to just drop me in the middle of nowhere and not help me. These people want the best for me. They’re loving and they’re caring and very supportive,” she said.

“I felt loved and I felt supported so that’s how I managed to go out and do it on my own."

She was able to call home every day, which helped what was a difficult experience.

She then underwent three days of steroids and four days of chemo.

In what is a complex procedure, patients are given steroids to stimulate the stem cells to come out of the bone marrow.

They are then hooked up to a machine which extracts a patient’s stem cells.

Melissa said the machine looked like “an old recorder machine”.

It took her two days to extract enough stem cells and the following day she started chemo.

After a few days of chemo, the stem cells were put back into her body.

“It was only painful for five minutes but my whole body went stiff and all my bones and everything started to hurt,” she said. 

Melissa then went into isolation while her immune system recovered.

“As my immune system builds up, the hope is the MS doesn’t come back and I get a new immune system which is MS free,” she said. 

“Some people have gotten really good results from it and their symptoms have disappeared. If that happens to me that’d be great but I’m hoping at least to just halt the disease and anything extra is a bonus. For me that’s worth it.”

But how successful the procedure was, won’t be known for awhile.

“If there’s no progression after two years that’s a good thing and if there’s improvement that’s even better. It’s kind of wait and see,” she said. 

It was a tough trip home for Melissa, who could hardly lift herself or walk and needed wheelchair assistance.

While she has been home for several weeks, her recovery is far from over.

For three months after the procedure she has to wear a mask when she leaves the house and all her food must be cooked- nothing raw.

There is also the worry of infection.

“Hospital was a safe place. If anything went wrong you just pressed the buzzer. I have to check my temperature every day and I get tired just standing up. It’ll get better, I just have to give it time,” she said. 

Melissa said she was grateful to the entire Highlands community for their support and that she couldn’t have made it to Russia without the special help of Gina Cicco, Chris Hurditch, Linda Edmunds, Grace Barilla, Kylie Mathews, Chris Dixon, Jo Casely, Melinda Pizzata, Jodie Iliani, Jackie Losurdo Maria Cervonaro, Lumen Kwint, Danielle Pascoe, Leslie Matruglio Elly Grenfell, Southern Highlands Wines, C3 Church Bowral and all those who helped sell tickets as well as the local businesses that supported the fundraising.